The ICJ jointly convened a two-and-a-half day training workshop with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute.
The meeting congregated lecturers from the four law schools from around the country to look into options for the development of clinical legal education programmes.
One of the objectives of the meeting was to acquaint and equip law schools with the various models and approaches to clinical legal education.
To that end the workshop covered issues including: an overview of clinical legal education programmes and models for law clinics; developing clinical legal education curricula; clinical/interactive teaching methods; and practical placement of students with local, regional and international organizations.
This initiative was a first step in a Clinical Legal Education Programme which is a response by the ICJ to concerns from judicial officers on the quality of legal graduates.
The clinical legal education programme is part of a broader ICJ intervention, which is looking to better equip and motivate lawyers to effectively contribute to the maintenance of the rule of law and preservation of human rights.
The process was jointly facilitated by Professor David Mcquoid-Mason (President, Commonwealth Legal Education Association) and Alex Conte of the ICJ and the University of Sussex.
The 17 participant academics (ten males and seven females) who attended the meeting where drawn from the four law schools in Zimbabwe: the Faculty of Law from the University of Zimbabwe; the Herbert Chitepo Law School at the Great Zimbabwe University; the Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University; and the Midlands State University.
Additional participants where drawn from the Institute for Peace, Leadership and Governance, at Africa University.
The workshop was held with the support of the European Union Delegation to Zimbabwe (EU).